Tripura Assembly witnesses spat over minister's 'racist' remark against opposition leader

The Tripura Assembly witnessed a noisy scene for the fourth day on Thursday over Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath's alleged racist remarks against Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Jitendra Chaudhury.

Amid the controversy, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha appealed to the opposition members to come to the House and participate in the discussion on the annual Budget and other important issues.

Opposition CPI(M) on Wednesday announced that it would boycott the remaining days of the ongoing Budget session of the Tripura Assembly to protest against Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen's "partisan" role and "racist" remarks of Minister Nath.

The Left legislators organized a protest demonstration in front of the statue of B. R. Ambedkar in the Assembly complex in support of their issues.

Former Minister and senior Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman on Thursday urged Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen to take an initiative to talk to the CPI (M) members and amicably settle the issue.

Minister Nath, Speaker, Tourism and Transport Minister Sushant Chowdhury engaged in heated arguments with Roy Barman, and the noisy scenes continued for more than 15 minutes.

As part of their Wednesday's announcement, ten CPI(M) members led by LoP Chaudhury did not attend the House on Thursday.

The LoP moved a privilege motion against Minister Nath on Tuesday. However, the Speaker rejected the motion on Wednesday, saying that one privilege motion against CPI(M)'s Tripura mouthpiece 'Daily Desher Kath' was accepted, and as per the rule, two privilege motions cannot be accepted on the same day.

The privilege motion against 'Daily Desher Kath' was moved by Minister Nath.

During the Zero Hour, when the Speaker announced that he rejected the privilege motion moved by the LoP against Minister Nath, the opposition CPI(M)members protested, leading to serious pandemonium in the House before the Left members walked out of the House.

LoP Chaudhury said: "The Assembly Speaker is violating the traditions, decorum and democratic spirit, playing a one-sided role. He is discharging the role of a treasury bench member, forgetting his impartial Speaker's position. The Speaker runs the House on the open dictation of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister."

The LoP, accompanied by other Left legislators, claimed that the Speaker "unethically and illegally" rejected his privilege motion against Minister Nath and accepted the latter's privilege motion, though he (Chaudhury) first submitted it following the norms of the House.

"The BJP government, after coming to power in 2018, destroyed the democracy and 'goonda raj' and total lawlessness' has been prevailing in the state," said Chaudhury, who is also the state secretary of the CPI(M).

Both the Speaker and Minister Nath, however, denied any such "racist" comments, while Nath claimed that he did not have any intentions to hurt the opposition leader's tribe or community; he wanted to refer to the "mindset" of the CPI(M).